Heroes season 3 - First impressions

***SPOILER ALERT***

Its been a while since the rather lackluster season 2 of Heroes ended leaving most viewers rather skeptical about the show's future, save the hardcore fan-base the show seems to have contracted.
To say that season 3 starts off were season 2 left off is somewhat irrelevant because very little about what has happened in the two previous seasons have any relevance this time around (it would seem). You basically need to know the basic setup and you are good to go. Not that there is anywhere special to go mind you. The two hour premiere confirms what you may have suspected all along if you have been watching: Heroes is a poorly written show with a very contrived overall flow. The notion that the show is written and directed by the seat of the creators and writers pants is not hard to imagine when staggering plot-holes appear frequently, most of which are due to the heroes being so overpowered writers need to ignore what they can do in order to patch together anything resembling a story. For example: the season 2 cliffhanger shows Nathan being shot as he was about to announce to the world that he has the ability to fly. Now in season 3 we learn that it was Peter, his brother, from the future (4 years in the future, he can time travel) that did it because the future turned out pretty darn depressing when the public learned of the super powered people. An interesting concept to be sure, but when you have Peter, a demigod he is that overpowered, shooting his brother to stop him from revealing everything, you can't help but wonder why. Why not simply go back a little further and explain the situation? Present Peter is of course very upset about all of this, but does he go back in time to stop the shooting from ever taking place? No...why not, you can TIME TRAVEL?
The show suffers on like this throughout the two hours giving us scenes like Claire hiding from Sylar, another overpowered demigod in all respects, in a closet and heroes shooting at each other with guns which has proven over and over and over again does not work. End it all with a pointless twist that will have very little baring on the overall stories and you are left with a mess of a show that needs a miracle to get back on its feet.

As you may have guessed by now, if you haven't seen it for yourself, there is so much more bad here then there is good. There are some bright spots however that, if handled correctly, could bring the show up a notch. The second episode sees a group of some pretty evil and twisted super powered bad guys that make Sylar look rather mediocre (one of them can generate fire and uses the ability to burn a woman alive for the hell of it). Claire's story (she can heal herself, but now she stops feeling pain) and how she deals with her new found "lack of humanity" could be very interesting to watch as well as Mohinder injecting himself with a serum that give powers to anyone only to discover some pretty nasty side effects.

But overall season 3 of Heroes seem to continue indeed were season 2 left off: with steadily declining quality.

Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class loves Extraterrestrial Vegetation Examiner.

In 700 years time Earth will be so filled with garbage that we will have no choice but to leave it behind in favor of life on a space cruiser. On leaving our once great planet however we forgot one little thing: to shut down the last operating Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class, or WALL-E for short. For 700 years he has been alone on Earth cleaning up the garbage while collecting various trinkets (hubcaps, light bulbs, etc.). But WALL-E is extremely lonely and wants nothing more then to have someone in his life to hold his hand. Then when a automated spaceship deposits a Extraterrestrial Vegetation Examiner (EVE), WALL-E's adventure that will change the course of human history begins.

What makes Wall-E, the latest Disney/Pixar animated movie, such an interesting film is the fact that you follow robots who, instead of speaking, communicate with various beeps, gasps and electronic noises. This has been somewhat of a double-edged sword when it comes to attracting an audience as some relish the idea of this unconventional approach to storytelling while others feel alienated by it.

But let me assure you now that it works brilliantly. You quickly realize that WALL-E and EVE (as well as the other robots that show up later on) probably say more then the humans in the movie do. Because when you take away conventional language you are stuck with raw emotion being conveyed in the simplest form possible, making Wall-E the most believable love story I can remember having seen in a long time. You truly believe that robots can fall in love and it doesn't take long before you no longer see two robots, but two individuals.

The world Wall-E takes place in is a bleak and distopian future that, even though exaggerated, can gives you pause about where we are going as an ever technological evolving society. This is the other side of Wall-E that is the reason it works as well as it does. The world is not that far of a stretch to imagine and therefore becomes realistic in a terrifying kind of way.

When it comes to the humans in the film, people who have evolved into almost boneless blobs due to living in space for so long, the voice-acting reaches the level of excellence we have come to expect from any Disney or (even more so in the resent years) Pixar movie. We get Sigourney Weaver as the voice of the Space Cruiser's main computer and it feels a little out of place having such a recognizable voice in a movie were every human voice is, and should be, unrecognizable and new.

Wall-E is a movie that is either very easy or extremely hard to criticize depending on were you stand on following main characters that don't speak in any conventional way. If you think it worked perfectly and it is a better movie for it (and you should) then you will find very little in Wall-E that is negative. There are some plot holes that don't really stand out in a large way, but if you think about it they do become clear. The Earth being covered in garbage is maybe the largest one and in a future were we can fly though space and invent artificial intelligence, dealing with garbage shouldn't be a major concern.

Visually Wall-E stands out by reaching a new level of CGI excellence were at times you forget you are watching an animated movie. This is backed up by having images of real life humans popping up here and there that, all though standing out next to the CGI human blobs in the movie hold up perfectly next to the robots in the movie.

But overall Wall-E is a special kind of movie that works for kids of all ages while still offering enough for adults and teens, asking some very philosophical questions lost on the younger crowd. Simply said this is a must see, so stop reading and do so now.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Evelyn (Maria Bello) are once again forced into a battle against the undead as their son Alex (Luke Ford) discovers the tomb of emperor Han (Jet Lee). Long ago Han was betrayed by the witch Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh) who cursed Han and his army turning them into stone statues. But when Han is reawakened by a Chinese general who wants Han to bring China back to its former glory all hell breaks loose.

When it comes to the use of CGI in movies these days, the Indiana Jones style adventure movies may perhaps be the one type of film that suffers the most. Maybe it is because we are used to practical effects contra digital in this genre and when looking at movies like the Mummy series the CGI really stands out from the rest of the world. This is not to say that CGI in adventure movies are always bad as Lord of the rings certainly pulled it off brilliantly. But Lord of the rings had the advantage of a budget that most adventure movies don't get and it is a lack of such a budget that really sticks out in Tomb of the dragon emperor (which will be from now on be referred to as Mummy 3).

Mummy 3 is at its core a fast paced action adventure that is not meant to stand up to strong scrutiny and is generally designed for an audience that want to sit back with their popcorn and see something cool in screen. And in this fashion Mummy 3 delivers on all cylinders. It never goes for too long without an action set piece and always delivers everything from Yetis in the Himalayas to armies of the undead battling it out at the base of the Great Wall of China.

Overall the movie doesn't immerse itself in the Chinese culture or history as much as the previous two did with Egypt. Maybe this is because Egypt has more of a mystic quality to it then China for most people or simply because Chinese culture and mythology is less known in general. If any of those two are correct I don't know, but Mummy 3 doesn't have the same cultural weight to it that the others did. Jet Lee as the new mummy works great for the franchise, but he never seems as threatening as Imhotep did in Mummy and The mummy returns. This is curious seeing how the dragon emperor has allot more power at his disposal then Imhotep ever did, but then again Imhotep could suck the very life out of you if you got close where as emperor Han is depended on fireballs and spikes of ice. But an overall good performance by Jet Lee and the new mummy works fine for the story.

Mummy 3 also sees a recast of the Evelyn O’Connell character previously played by Rachel Weisz and now taken over by Maria Bello. This is a major contributor to why the film will never rank as good as its two predecessors as there is little if no chemistry between Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello. After having watched two films where Evelyn and Rick are a believable couple head over heels in love, its hard to have to sit and see someone impersonating the Evelyn character in a way that can only remind you who she isn’t rather then who she is.

Lastly we come to the use of CGI in the film and it is the reason why this is a second rate adventure film. Whenever CGI is used (and it is used just in about every scene) it stands out and is never truly able to blend in with the real surroundings. The only thing that really works is emperor Han himself as he walks around as a living statue. It would seem most of the budget went into making the mummy work, but when it comes to everything else it simply falls short.
Emperor Han can transform into a variety of mythical creatures, but whenever he does we are treated to second rate CGI work that really draws attention to it self and not the movie and in 2008 that is should be unforgivable.

So there you have it. The mummy: tomb of the dragon emperor works as a second rate action adventure that flows along well enough to get you into the story if you are able to ignore some bad CGI work and static romances, but you would ultimately be better off revisiting the previous two mummy films on DVD.

Return of the machines

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles season 2 premiered this week on FOX. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the series, Terminator: tSCC is a TV series based on the Terminator franchise picking up where Terminator 2: Judgment Day left off. A new Terminator named Cameron (Summer Glau) is sent back in time to protect young John Connor (Thomas Dekker) from Cromartie (Garret Dillahunt), a second Terminator sent through time to kill John, the future leader of mankind in the war against the machines. John is acompanied by his mother Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) and Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green) - John's uncle from the future. Together they do what they can to survive and take down Skynet, the computer system that destroys the world, before it is created and stop judgement day.

When the series premiered earlier this year allot of people, myself included, were sceptical as to how the Terminator franchise would be strong and rich enough to support a TV series. The premise of the saga is rather thin, but now that season 1 (cut short by the writers strike) is over and season 2 is at our doorstep one thing is certain: creator David Nutte knows what he is doing and that the Terminator saga has allot more to offer.

The season 2 premiere goes deeper into the Terminator saga by introducing Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson), the CEO of ZeiraCorp, a company that deals in advanced technology projects. She is a cold and calculated woman who seems to have an almost romatic view of machines and the orderly structure they represent. But Catherine Weaver hides a secret that is by far the best twist the series has given us so far. It would seem that the first seeds of Skynet is about to be planted and time is running out.

The episodes main focus however is Cameron gone bad as, after being caught in a car bomb, "her" main processing chip has been damaged. Now she has reverted back to her original programming: eliminate John Connor. Now John and Sarah need to escape a Terminator that knows everything about them and can forsee their every move and John needs to bring him self to try and kill the one person, no matter how arteficial, he could call a friend.

The series seems to look closely at the relationship between man and machine (something explored in T2 as well) as John obviously seem to have strong emotions towards Cameron and this territory is well explored in this episode. As friend becomes foe John clearly struggles with being able to kill cameron and in the end does something that puts both him and Sarah in great jeopardy.

Terminator season 2 premiere marks, in my opinion, the best episode of the series so far. It examines some very complicated issues (like what it means to be a machine and the relationship between man and machine for better and for worse) as well as bringing us great action and some twist and turns that will set the course for the future of the series.


Lastly I just want to let you know that the second Quantum of Solace (Bond 22) trailer is out and is looking fantastic. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQW2MtibAmk